Plastic extrusions for use in floor assemblies

ABSTRACT

An extrusion for use in a floor assembly that is secured to a rigid underlying support. The extrusion has an exposed surface and a base section underlying the exposed surface. The extrusion is made of a first extruded material, preferably a hard polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and more preferably a co-extrusion of a recycled polyvinyl chloride substrate covered by a weatherable polyvinyl chloride capstock. The base section has at least a portion thereof including a second extruded material which is interposed between the plastic extrusion and the rigid underlying support when the plastic extrusion is secured to the rigid underlying support. The second extruded material resists undesired squeaking sounds from occurring when weight bearing loads move on the floor assembly. A floor assembly adapted to be secured to an underlying rigid support and a complete floor assembly and rigid underlying support are also disclosed.

This is a division, of application Ser. No. 08/397,002 filed Mar. 1,1995.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to plastic extrusions for use in floorassemblies, and more particularly, to plastic extrusions which areconnected to a rigid underlying support, such as wood joists, by anunique snap connector, the plastic extrusions including an additionalextruded material interposed between the extrusion and the underlyingsupport to resist undesired squeaking sounds from occurring when weightbearing loads move on the floor assembly.

It is very well known to construct floor assemblies, such as decks forhomes and boat docks, using wood planks secured to an underlyingsupport, such as spaced wood joists. There are, however, severaldisadvantages with using exposed wood planks for these applications.Wood, if left untreated, can very quickly rot, thus requiringreplacement of some if not all of the wood planks. This occursespecially for wood decks and boat docks that are subject to outdoorweather conditions such as rain, snow and sunlight. In addition, woodplanks can shrink, creating unsightly and dangerous gaps in theplanking. Finally, wood is becoming more and more expensive.

Pressure treated lumber is widely used to protect the wood from rotting,however, even pressure treated lumber begins to rot over time withexposure to the elements. In addition, it is recommended by most vendorsof pressure treated lumber that a protectant be applied to the wood.This protectant usually must be applied yearly. This is a majordisadvantage of wood decks, due to the expense and time consuming natureof applying and reapplying this protectant year after year. Failure tobe diligent in these applications can lead to early rotting of theexposed wood planks and the major expense and inconvenience of replacingsome if not all of the wood planks.

It is known to use plastic extrusions for slatted floor assemblies. Forexample, U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,550 discloses a slatted floor assembly foranimal enclosures and the like. The floor assembly consists of a set ofelongated extruded plastic members, preferably made of polyvinylchloride (PVC). A plurality of clip-like elements maintain the membersin a spaced longitudinally parallel relationship. The elements areprovided with a central, upright spacer and a pair of arms. Holdingmeans in the form of notches which cooperate with projections aredisposed at the outer ends of the arms in the spacer to releasablyreceive and exteriorly grip members.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,339 also discloses a slatted floor assembly usefulfor animal enclosures. The slats are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC)and are snap fitted to a central member equipped with shouldersgenerally illustrated by reference nos. 140a and 142a of FIG. 4.

Despite the existence of these slatted floor assemblies, those skilledin the art still faced two nagging problems when attempting to useplastic extrusions for floor assemblies. The first problem was that whenthe plastic extrusions were secured to an underlying rigid supportsurface (such as a wood decking), an annoying and extremely undesirablesqueaking sound is made when weight bearing loads were moved on thedeck, such as when a person walks across the deck. The second problemwas that there was no efficient and reliable method of attaching theplastic extrusions to the underlying rigid supports.

What is needed, therefore, is a plastic extrusion that eliminates thesqueaking problem and a new connector for use in securing the plasticextrusion to the underlying rigid support.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention has met or surpassed the above mentioned needs as well asothers. The extrusion for use in a floor assembly that is secured to arigid underlying support comprises an exposed surface and a base sectionunderlying the exposed surface. The extrusion is made of a firstextruded material, preferably a hard polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and morepreferably a co-extrusion of a recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC)substrate covered by a weatherable polyvinyl chloride (PVC) capstock.The base section has at least a portion thereof including a secondextruded material which is interposed between the plastic extrusion andthe rigid underlying support when the plastic extrusion is secured tothe rigid underlying support. The second extruded material resistsundesired squeaking sounds from occurring when weight bearing loads moveon the floor assembly.

The invention also includes a floor assembly adapted to be secured to anunderlying rigid support, the floor assembly comprising a plurality ofelongated plastic extrusions and a snap connector adapted to be attachedto the underlying rigid support for securing the plastic extrusions tothe rigid underlying support.

The invention also further includes a floor assembly comprising anunderlying support and a plurality of elongated plastic extrusionssecured to the underlying support. The plastic extrusions areconstructed similarly to that described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A full understanding of the invention can be gained from the followingdescription of the preferred embodiment when read in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the floor assembly of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the snap connection of theinvention as it is secured to the wood joists.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the profile of the extrusionand the snap connector.

FIG. 4 is a detailed vertical cross-section of the plastic extrusion andthe snap connector.

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 only showing the extrusion as it ispressed down onto the snap connector.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a plasticextrusion having a different profile than the extrusion shown in FIGS.1-5.

FIG. 7 is yet another extrusion having a still different profile.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of a snapconnector.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing an extrusion as it is presseddown onto the snap connector of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 9 only showing theextrusion after it is snapped down onto the snap connector.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The plastic extrusions shown herein are used to form floor assemblies,suchas an outdoor residential deck. It will be appreciated however, thatthere are numerous other uses for the plastic extrusions and/or snapconnector disclosed herein including but not limited to boat docks,enclosure patios, dance floors or any flooring assembly where othermaterials, such as wood, are currently used. Therefore, although thedescription set forthherein focusses on a residential deck, it will beappreciated that the invention is not so limited and can encompass otherflooring assemblies such as those mentioned above and more.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an exploded perspective view of a floorassembly of the invention is shown. The floor assembly consists of aplurality of spaced parallel wood joists 10, 12, 14 which form thefoundation of decking. The spaced parallel wood joists each have ahorizontal surface 10a, 12a, 14a. These wood joists form a part of theunderlying rigid support for the plastic extrusions (discussed below). Awood joist 17 is also mounted to narrow vertical sides 10b, 12b, 14b ofeach of the wood Joists in order to complete the underlying rigidsupport for the floor assembly.

The floor assembly further consists of a snap connector 20 to which isconnected a plastic flooring extrusion 22. It will be appreciated that aplurality of extrusions and snap connectors are mounted generallyperpendicularly to the horizontal surface 10a, 12a, 14a of the woodjoistsin order to form the flooring assembly. FIG. 1 also shows a snapconnector 24 and a plastic extrusion 26 that can be mounted to joist 17,which was initially secured on the narrow vertical sides 10b, 12b, 14bof wood joists 10, 12, 14. Yet another snap connector 28 and a plasticextrusion 30 can be mounted to wide vertical side 14c of wood joist 14in order to complete the floor assembly.

As can be seen in FIG. 1, the plastic extrusions have an exposed surface30including a plurality of depressions 32 which make the floorslip-resistant.

FIG. 2 shows snap connector 20 as it is mounted to wood joists 10, 12and 14. Fasteners 40, 42 and 44 are used to secure the snap connector 20to the respective wood joists. Fasteners 40, 42 and 44 are also shown inFIG.1. It will be appreciated that similar fasteners (not shown) areused to secure snap connectors 24 and 28 to wood joist 17 and wood joist14, respectively.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a pair of extrusions 50 and 52 are shown beingconnected to respective snap connectors 54 and 56 to form the floorassembly. The snap connectors 54, 56 are secured to a wood joist 58 andthen the plastic extrusions 50 and 52 are mounted onto their respectivesnap connectors 54 and 56.

FIG. 4 shows a detailed view of a representative extrusion 60 which isconnected to snap connector 62. The extrusion 60 consists of a substrate64 made, preferably, of a recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material,however, any extruded plastic material can be used. The substrate 64 iscovered by a virgin capstock material 66 which is co-extruded onto thesubstrate by known methods. The virgin capstock material 66 ispreferably a weatherable, hard, virgin polyvinyl chloride (PVC)material.

It will be appreciated that recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC) can beused as the substrate because the substrate has all of its exposedsurfaces covered by the virgin capstock material 66. Thus, the bulk ofthe extrusion can be made of less expensive, less attractive and readilyavailable recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Referring further to FIG.4, the structure of the extrusion includes a load bearing horizontalportion 70 and four legs 72, 74, 76, 78 which extend generallyperpendicularly to the load bearing horizontal portion 70. Two angularcross-members 80, 82 are provided having ends connected to legs 72 and74 and legs 76 and 78 respectively. It will further be seen that leg 72has a foot section 92 that extends generally perpendicularly to leg 72and which contacts the wood joist underlying support surface. Similarly,legs 74, 76, 78 each include foot sections 94, 96, 98.

As was explained in the Background section above, one of the majorproblemswith plastic extrusions was that an annoying squeaking sound wasmade when load bearing objects, such as persons, moved across the floor.This problem is solved by providing a soft, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)layer 102,104, 106, 108 which is applied to the bottom surface of eachof the foot sections 92, 94, 96, 98. This polyvinyl chloride (PVC) layerhas a softer durometer than the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used for thecapstock material66 and the substrate 64. In this way, the soft layers102, 104, 106, 108 act as a cushion between the wood joists (wood joist120 is shown in FIG. 4) and the remainder of the plastic extrusion, sothat there is not rigid structure-to-rigid structure contacttherebetween. This, in turn, eliminates the annoying squeaking soundthat heretofore has plagued attempts to successfully market and sellfloor assemblies made with plastic extrusion.

Referring now to both FIGS. 4 and 5, the structure and operation of thesnap connector 62 will be explained. The snap connector 62, which isalso made of an extruded polyvinyl chloride (PVC), consists of anelongated base portion 150 having a middle section 152 and a pair ofinverted "L" sections 154 and 156 extending from the opposite edges ofthe middle section. Attached to the "L" sections 154 and 156 arerespective flanges 160 and 162 which are disposed in an angularrelationship to the "L" sections 154 and 156. As can be seen in FIG. 4,the bottom sections 164 and 166 of flanges 154 and 156 are in intimatesurface-to-surface contact,and indeed are "wedged in" the corner formedby leg 74 and foot section 94 (for bottom section 164) and leg 76 andfoot section 96 (for bottom section 166). This arrangement resists both(i) upward and (ii) side-to-side relative movement of the plasticextrusion 60 to the snap connector 62.

Referring now to FIG. 5, in order to connect the extrusion 60 to thesnap connector 62, the extrusion 60 is merely pressed down on the snapconnector 62, thus forcing the resilient legs 74 and 76 to bendoutwardly.The bending of the legs 74 and 76 is facilitated by theangular orientationof flanges 160 and 162, which act as a pilot surfaceto bend the legs 74 and 76 outwardly. Once the legs 74 and 76 arepressed down far enough to clear the bottom sections 164 and 166 of theflanges 160 and 162, legs 74 and 76 along with foot sections 94 and 96,snap into the position shown inFIG. 4. The extrusion 60 is thus securelyconnected to the snap connector 62.

FIGS. 6 and 7, in which similar reference numbers to FIGS. 4 and 5 areindicated by the suffix "a" (FIG. 6) and "b" (FIG. 7) show alternateprofiles for the extrusion of the invention. In FIG. 6 foot sections 292and 298 extend outwardly from their respective flange portions asopposed to FIGS. 4 and 5 where only foot section 92 extends outwardlyand foot section 98 does not extend outwardly. In FIG. 7 neither footsections 392 and 398 extend outwardly from their respective flangeportions.

FIG. 8 shows an alternate embodiment of a snap connector 400 which canbe mounted on the wide vertical side 14c of wood joist 14 and/or woodjoist 17 (see FIG. 1) to facilitate securement of the verticallyoriented plastic extrusions, such as plastic extrusions 26 and 30, tothe floor assembly.

The snap connector 400, which is also made of an extruded polyvinylchloride (PVC) material, includes an elongated base 401 having a pair ofopposed elongated end flanges 402 and 404. Each flange 402, 404 includesafirst section 406, 408 which extends generally perpendicularly to base402 and a second section 410, 412 which in turn extends generallyperpendicularly from first section 406, 408. Each second section 410,412 includes a pilot surface 414, 416. The flanges 402, 404 each definea recessed space 418, 419. The snap connector also includes two lockingmembers 420 and 430. Locking member 420 consists of a pair of flanges442,444 which extend at a slight inward angle from a line perpendicularto the base 402. Flange 442 includes an inwardly facing lip 448. Lip 448has an upper pilot surface 452 and a lower surface 456 which isgenerally parallel to base 402. Flange 444, on the other hand, does notinclude a lip but does have an upper pilot surface 454. The flanges 442,444 define a locking space 460.

Locking member 430 is similar to locking member 420, and consists of apairof flanges 472, 474 which extend at a slight inward angle from aline perpendicular to the base 402. Flange 474 includes an inwardlyfacing lip 476. Lip 476 has an upper pilot surface 484 and a lowersurface 488 which is generally parallel to base 402. Flange 472, on theother hand, does notinclude a lip, but does have an upper pilot surface482. The flanges 472, 474 define a locking space 490.

FIG. 9 shows how a plastic extrusion, in this case plastic extrusion 60ashown in FIG. 6, engages into snap connector 400. The extrusion 60a ismerely pressed down on the snap connector 400. The legs 292, 94a, 96aand 298 engage against the respective pilot surface, i.e., pilot surface414 for foot section 292; pilot surfaces 452, 454 for foot section 94a;pilot surfaces 482, 484 for foot section 96a; and pilot surface 416 forfoot section 298. Once the legs 292, 94a, 96a and 298 are pressed downfar enough to clear flanges 402, 442 and 444, 472 and 474, 404respectively, the legs 292, 94a, 96a and 298 snap into recessed spaces418, 460, 490 and419, respectively as is shown in FIG. 10. The extrusion60a is thus securely connected to the snap connector 400.

It will be appreciated that snap connector 400 is shown in use with theprofile of FIG. 6. Snap connector 400 can be modified to be used withthe profiles shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, also. With regard to the profile inFIG. 5, it will be appreciated that foot section 98 does not have asection that extends outwardly from leg 78, as does foot section 298 ofFIG. 6. Inthis case, flange 404 of the snap connector 400 is notnecessary. In the case of the profile shown in FIG. 7, both footsections 392, 398 do not have a section that extends outwardly from legs72b, 78b respectively. In this case both flanges 402 and 404 are notnecessary.

It will be appreciated that a plastic extrusion for use in a floorassemblyis provided which can be used as a replacement to wood and whichsolves thesqueaking problem faced by those skilled in the art when usingprior art plastic extrusions. In addition, the snap connector disclosedprovides an efficient and effective apparatus for securely attaching theplastic extrusions to the underlying rigid support.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, it willbeappreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications andalterations to those details could be developed in light of the overallteachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, the particular arrangementsdisclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to thescope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of theappended claims and any and all equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A plastic extrusion for use in a floor assemblythat is secured to a rigid underlying support by means of a snapconnector, said extrusion having a pair of resilient leg members whichare adapted to bend outwardly when said extrusion is being pressed ontosaid snap connector and then snap inwardly to interlock with said snapconnector in order to secure said extrusion to said snap connector andsaid rigid underlying support surface, said extrusion being made of afirst extruded material and including an exposed surface and a basesection underlying said exposed surface, said base section having atleast a portion thereof including a second extruded material which isinterposed between said plastic extrusion and said rigid underlyingsupport when said plastic extrusion is secured to said rigid underlyingsupport, said second extruded material resisting undesired squeakingsounds from occurring when weight bearing loads move on said floorassembly and said first extruded material has a hardness greater thanthe hardenss of said second extruded material.
 2. The plastic extrusionof claim 1, wherein said exposed surface has a plurality of depressionsdefined therein to make said exposed surface slip-resistant.
 3. Theplastic extrusion of claim 1, whereinsaid second extruded material ispolyvinyl chloride (PVC).
 4. The plastic extrusion of claim 3,whereinsaid first extruded material is polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
 5. Theplastic extrusion of claim 1, whereinsaid plastic extrusion includes asubstrate and a capstock disposed over said substrate.
 6. The plasticextrusion of claim 5, whereinsaid substrate is made of recycledpolyvinyl chloride (PVC).
 7. The plastic extrusion of claim 6,whereinsaid capstock is made of virgin weatherable polyvinyl chloride(PVC).
 8. A floor assembly comprising:a rigid underlying support; aplurality of elongated plastic extrusions secured to said rigidunderlying support, each of said plastic extrusions including (i) a basesection made of a first extruded material and (ii) a second extrudedmaterial secured to said base section which is interposed between saidbase section and said rigid underlying support to resist undesiredsqueaking sounds from occurring when weight bearing loads move on saidfloor assembly; a snap connector attached to said underlying support forsecuring said plastic extrusions to said rigid underlying support; andsaid extrusion includes a pair of resilient leg members which areadapted to bend outwardly when said extrusion is being pressed onto saidsnap connector and then snap inwardly to interlock with said snapconnector in order to secure said extrusion to said snap connector andsaid rigid underlying support.
 9. The assembly of claim 8, whereinsaidsnap connector has an elongated base portion and a pair of flangesattached to the opposite major sides of said base portion.
 10. Theassembly of claim 9, whereinsaid flanges form a pilot surface tofacilitate snapping said extrusion onto said snap connector.
 11. Theassembly of claim 10, whereinsaid base portion is secured to saidunderlying rigid support by screws.
 12. A floor assembly comprising:arigid underlying support; a plurality of elongated plastic extrusionssecured to said rigid underlying support, each of said plasticextrusions including (i) a base section made of a first extrudedmaterial and (ii) a second extruded material secured to said basesection which is interposed between said base section and said rigidunderlying support to resist undesired squeaking sounds from occurringwhen weight bearing loads move on said floor assembly; said extrusionincludes at least two leg members; a snap connector having an elongatedbase and at least two locking members defining a recessed space each ofwhich receive one of said leg members; said locking members each includea pair of flanges extending from said base, each said flange includingan upper pilot surface to facilitate pressing said leg members into saidrecessed space; and said base includes at least one end flange whichdefines a first end recessed space, said end flange including an upperpilot surface to facilitate pressing a third said leg member into saidfirst end recessed space.
 13. The assembly of claim 12, whereinsaidelongated base includes a second said end flange which defines a secondend recessed space, said second end flange including an upper pilotsurface to facilitate pressing a fourth said leg member into said secondend recessed space.